Hugh Mitchell Chapin ’47


Hugh Mitchell Chapin ’47 died on October 12, 2011, in Pittsboro, North Carolina. He grew up in Wellesley Hills, Massachusetts, attended Wellesley High School and was assigned to Dartmouth in the naval V-12 unit. He served in the Navy from 1943 to 1946. He was a member of Green Key and was active in the DOC, serving on the executive committee and as Winter Carnival chairman in 1949. He entered the insurance business in Lexington, Kentucky, and then founded Chapin-Wood Insurance in Cambridge, Massachusetts, with Bill Wood ’47 in 1961. After Bill died in 1972, Hugh ran the business for 12 years, merging with Brewer and Lord, where he served as a partner until his retirement in 1993. He was a past president of the Insurance Brokers of Massachusetts and of Massachusetts Association of Insurance Agents and Brokers. He was a past president of the Cambridge Rotary Club and a member of the board of directors of the Chamber of Commerce. He retired to North Carolina in 1993, when he devoted himself to the planning and promotion of Galloway Ridge, a continuing care and retirement community in Pittsboro. He was named as Trustee of the Year for Continuing Care Retirement Committees in North Carolina in 2010. He was predeceased by his first wife; he is survived by wife Beverly and sons Stewart ’77 and Thomas ’80. He served the class as executive committee member (1987-2011), gift chairman (1973-83), reunion giving committee member (1995-97), president (1991-97), agent (1966-71) and newsletter editor (1957-65).